1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a translucent rigid substrate laminate and a translucent rigid substrate bonding apparatus, and particularly to a method of manufacturing a plate glass laminate for manufacturing a protection glass of a display element and a plate glass bonding apparatus used in a process of manufacturing the protection glass of the display element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display elements such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic EL displays (OELDs), electroluminescent displays (ELDs), field emission displays (FEDs), and plasma displays (PDPs) are used in display devices of various kinds of electronic equipment such as televisions, laptop computers, car navigations, electronic calculators, mobile phones, electronic schedulers and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Further, a plate glass product for protection is generally installed to face the display element in order to protect the display element.
The plate glass product is processed in proper size and shape so that the plate glass corresponds to each display device, but it is required that a large amount of plate glass products are processed at high production efficiency in order to cope with a cost level required in the market.
Accordingly, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256125 (Patent Literature 1) proposes a method of increasing production efficiency of a plate glass product. Specifically, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256125 proposes “a method of processing a plate glass, comprising: forming a material glass block (A) obtained by laminating a plurality of material plate glasses 1 and, at the same time, integrally fixing each material plate glass 1 by a strippable fixing material 2 interposed between the material plate glasses 1, forming a division glass block (B) having a small area by dividing the material glass block (A) in a surface direction, forming a product glass block (C) in a product form when viewed in a plan view by processing at least an outer boundary of the division glass block (B), and individually separating the product glass block (C) after an edge face of the product glass block (C) is processed” (claim 1). Accordingly, there is described that “since division, external shape processing and edge face processing are performed while a plurality of material plate glasses are laminated, a plurality of plate glass products may be obtained by a few processes and productivity is high” (paragraph 0007).
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256125 describes that “the fixing material 2 interposed between the material plate glasses 1 is a photo-curable liquid fixing material that is cured when UV is irradiated and then softened when a temperature is increased (claim 4). Accordingly, there is described that “if pressure is applied in upper and lower directions by interposing the photo-curable liquid fixing agent between the upper and lower material plate glasses, the liquid fixing agent spreads to have a constant thickness in a film form on the entire surface between the upper and lower material plate glasses, and if infrared rays are irradiated in this state, the liquid fixing agent spreading in the film form is cured to integrally fix the upper and lower plate glasses. Therefore, a plurality of material plate glasses may be rapidly laminated with a high precision so as to be integrally fixed. In addition, after final processing (edge face processing), if the product glass block is immersed in warm water and the like to increase the temperature, the fixing agent cured between the plate glasses is softened and separated in a film form. It is described that therefore, it is easy to recover and treat the fixing agent without causing environmental pollution (paragraph 0007).
The column of “Best Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention” of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256125 describes that twenty material plate glasses are laminated while the photo-curable liquid fixing agent is interposed between the material plate glasses, subsequently, the fixing agent is cured by irradiating UV (UV ray) to the upper surface of the laminated material plate glass, and the material glass block where the upper and lower material plate glasses are integrally fixed is formed (paragraphs 0010 to 0011).